144 DIFFERENT BREEDS OF POULTRY. 



Partridge Cochins differ greatly in the sexes. The cocks 

 have black breasts and under parts, while the hackles and 

 saddle-feathers are rich orange-red, striped with black ; wings 

 red and bay, with a bright green-black bar across the middle ; 

 tail black. The hens have also orange striped hackle, the 

 rest of the plumage being dark -brown (ranging to black) 

 " pencillings," on a light-brown ground. (See Pencilled Feathers, 

 Nos. 6, 7, 8.) Legs, a dusky yellow. Very dark partridges were 

 once called grouse, but the name has disappeared. 



Cuckoo Cochins are a peculiar bluish-grey mottle all over ; 

 each feather crossed by bands of light and dark blue-grey. They 

 are seldom of good shape. 



Black Cochins nearly disappeared for many years, for want 

 of stock, and the attempt to breed black fowls with yellow legs, 

 which was unnatural. 



LANGSHANS. In and after 1871, however, fresh importations 

 of black Cochin-like birds were made, under their native name of 

 Langshans, direct from North China. These birds had black legs, 

 with a crimson tinge, and were many of them much longer on the 

 leg, and with fuller tails than the modern Cochin model, though 

 greatly resembling some of the early importations. A portion 

 were gladly used by black Cochin breeders, and worked a great 

 improvement in the worn-out black stock, changing also the 

 fashion in them to the natural colour of black legs. But 

 many of the birds (not all) had the deep breast which 

 the modern fancy Cochin so lacked ; and Langshan 

 breeders strenuously resisted this amalgamation. Any identity 

 of race was even denied, with much more warmth than 

 truth or knowledge ; but the strong feeling on this point un- 

 doubtedly did good, in causing the maintenance, from the best 

 specimens, of a full-breasted type of bird. An exact type is 

 not fixed, and perhaps never may be ; but in general the 

 Langshan may be described as having a moderate length of leg, 

 scantily feathered, a well-furnished tail carried rather high, 



